Sport garment



P 1950 l. E. YATES- 2,523,175

SPORT GARMENT Filed April 14, 1948 v JNVENTOR.

Tnvme E. YATES Patented Sept. 19, 1950 1, Irving: E. mes, New York; N.assign to Gilmar Shirt Gm, Ind, New York-,N. Y.

Application April 14, 1e4sgseriai No. 21-;646

This invention relates to e aims to provide anovel and valuable garmentespecially well adapted to bef'abricated as a m'ans sport shirt.

As preferably embodied, the invention provides .s "andusefulii'nmovements arm nts, and, more particularly,

6 Claimsi o1; e r-28 a 'shirttlike garment, having a fly front of unique1 kind. In this connection, the frontpor'tion of the garment is made oftwo sections completely separable aloriga lineobliquely extending fromthe top of the garment down to near the bottom thereof. Said line'issubstantially straight; and

the' garment is out according to a pattern such that the tops of saidtwo sections are so locatedas to meet'at a point laterally offset fromthe vertical center line of thegar-m'ent front, asunder'one of the twofrontally dependent tabs of a turned down attached collar, and thepoints onsaid=sec= tions markin the bottom of said obliquely exe tendingline are so located as to meetata por= tion of the garment somewhatabove the bottom thereof and further offset fromf said vertical centerline than the offsetting of the top of said obliquely extending linefrom said vertical line.

A slide fastener is used for closing saidsection's along said obliquelyextending line, between the top and the bottom thereof, which bottomlris ideally located for allowing a single auxiliary fastening means, asa button and ,buttonhole, a

snap fastener, or the like, to be employed below the bottom of the saidobliquely, extending line, for completing the securementof said sectionsin a way to coact with the slide fastener inspreading V the front of thegarment smoothly yet-comfortably over the front ofthe torso of'thewearer while acting properl to close the garment, at the portion thereofbelow the bottom of said obliquely extending line; r i I In order toobtain the advantages Just mentioned, and at the same time to have thegarment present an appearance suggestive of a slip-over blouse, ratherthan an ,open front shirt, and incidentally to conceal the fact that aslide fastener is present, a special construction is provided inconnection with the slide; fastener; that is, in addition. to the twotapes, which in a slidefastener usually carry the coacting fastenerteeth spaced therealong, with one such tape secured as by stitchingalong the openable side of one of the said front sections of the garmentand the other such tape secured as by stitching along-the open- "ableside of the other of said sections, a striplike plural-ply structure,including apaneli of thefabric of which the garment is made, is

carried by one: of said-sections and arranged 65 thereohinsueh mannerthat while the garment is on the wearer-said plural-ply structure withsaid gamer-outermost, overlies and entirely conceals theislidefastener.- Nevertheless, the arrange--v ment is such that" the entirefrontof the garment maybe quickly opened; from top to bottom, for

removing the garmentifrom the body of the wearer and for substantiallyflat spread to facilitate per-feet laundering.

Said plural-ply structure includes also a panel for underlying. andprojecting laterally beyond theslide fastener, and isxc'arried by thesection other than the section carrying the panel mene tioned in thelast preceding paragraph. For holding said underlying panel to flat;smooth and comfortable disposition; there is provided a secondauxiliary'fastening means, as a snap fastener; with one element thereofon the upper portion of said underlying panel and with the complementaryelement ofsaid fastener on the upper portion ofthesection carrying saidovere lying panel. a

For further comprehensionofthe invention,

and'of the objects andadvantages thereof; reference willbe hadtothe-following description and accompanyingi-fdrawings; and to theappended claims in which the various novel features of the invention aremore particularly set forth; n ;In the accompanyingdrawings formingama:terialpart of this disclosure:

Fig. 1 shows in front elevation an embodiment of v the invention; as nowfavored,- with the aforesaid-garment sections partially open near thebottom ofthe-garment; V p p Fig. 2,is a'viewa-similarto Fig; 1, but withsaid front sections-fully closed.

g FigzBisa fragmentary perspective view, show ing-theupper part of thegarment, with said front section's partially, open near the top of thegarment. i V g Fig; 4 is a fragmentary rear elevation. I

Fight? is an enlarged detail view, being asec- .tionotaken on'the line5=5 of Fig. 2

Fig. 6 is anqenlarged horizontal sectional View 45, I Referring to thedrawingsmore in detail, the

taken'onthejline 6 -6;of;Fig.' 2.

garmentT shown, byway of example, includes a 'reanuppersection lll arearlower section I0 a pai-rfof sleeves Il -i! Leach-with anopenable cuff12'," and aturned down'collar I4, is completed byialarger front section15" and a smaller and complementary frontsection I6. The garment is outaccording to a pattern such that the front there'of isropenable andolosable alongf a- 'straight line; by, respectively, opening and closingthe slide fastener aforesaid. Said line at its top is to one side of thefront vertical center line of the garment. Referring to Fig. 3, suchpoint, on the section I5, is indicated at IT, and such point, on thesection [6, is indicated at H. The aforesaid tapes for carrying thecoacting teeth of the slide fastener are suitably secured as bystitching to the facing edges of the sections l5 and Hi; the tape thuscarried by the section l5 being marked l8 and its teeth l9, and

the tape thus carried by the section [6 being marked 28 and its teeth2l.

way along the tapes l8 and 20, to open and close the slide fastener,will be noted in Fig. 3. The slide fastener may be arranged on thegarment either so that the slider 22 is slid upward for closing thegarment, or downward for effecting such closure. As indicated in Fig. 3,the arrangement of the slide fastener is preferably such that the slider22 is slid upward to effect a closure, and so, of course, downward, toopen the garment.

Since the garment should be wholly openable at its front, that is, allthe way from the top to the. bottom thereof, for an advantage alreadystated, the type of slide fastener used is the familiar one which allowscomplete separation of the two teeth-carrying tapes and which,therefore, has the tapes equipped, as indicated as 23 and 24 in Fig. 1,with temporarily interlockable male and female pieces. In thisconnection it may be explained that, in order clearly to show in Fig. 1the section I5 considerably rolled back at its bottom in the vicinity ofsaid pieces 23 and 24, the slide fastener is here illustrated as thoughit could have been and had been closed, without interlocking saidpieces, and merely. from a point well above the latter up tothe top ofthe garment.

From the bottom ends of the sections I5 and I6 continue downward intovertically extending edge portions 28 and 21.. At these verticallyextending'edge portions 28 and 21, the edges of the material is foldedback beneath the back faces of the. sections l5 and [6, as shown in Fig.6. Reenforcing strips 44 and 45 of buckram, or other similar reenforcingmaterial, are disposed between the adjacent faces of the sections l5 andI6 and the folded back edge portions of these sections l5 and I6. Snapfasteners 25 and 26 are provided on the vertically extending edgeportions 21 and 28 for releasably securing the edge portions together.As shown in Fig. 6, the cooperative snap fasteners are only mountedthrough the reenforcing strips 44 and 45 and the folded back edges ofthe edge portions 2'! and 28, so that when the fasteners are engagedthey are entirely hidden from view, both inside and outside of thegarment. Stitches are engaged through the overlapped layers of materialincluding the reenforcing strips 44 and 45 for securing the reenforcingstripsin position. If desired, the fasteners 25 and'26 could be replacedwith a single button on onesection' engageable with a button hole in theother section.

The fastener 25 is carried by the aforesaid plural-ply structure, theaforesaid panel of which is marked 29; while'the fastener 26, as theother and complementary element of the snap fastener 25, is carried bythe section l6 where the latter is overlapped by the lower portion ofthe flap 29 when the front of the garment is fully closed. This flap, aswill be. noted from Fig. 1, has a diagonally extended main upper lengthin parallelism with the lineof teeth [9 of the tape l8 the slidefasteners,

and a lower, minor vertically extending length at about the midpointalong which the button 25 or equivalent is placed; said minor, lowerlength being coextensive with the lower vertically extending edge 28 ofthe section 15. The point of merger of said two lengths of the flap 29is approximately at the line around the garment which would be at thewaist level of the wearer of the garment.

Desirably there is present, in addition to the flap 29, a flap 30, thiscarried by the section l6,

and long enough to be substantially coextensive I e I with the tape l8on said section, and so to prevent The key or slider 22, movable in thefamiliar any part of the slide fastener from contacting the body of thewearer of the garment.

Referring now particularly to Fig. 5, it will be observed that the flap29 at the portion thereof here shown, that is, along the main upperlength thereof extended in parallelism with the line of teeth IQ of thetape I8, is integral with the section [5, and is folded on itself at 3!to provide a two-ply flap; that the flap .38, a fabric piece separatefrom the section 5, is also folded on itself, at 32, to provide atwo-ply flap; that an additional fabric strip 33, along each of itsopposite sides given a lapped edge seam 34 or 35, is interposed betweenthe tape I8 and the main portion of the section l5; that the section I6is given a lapped edge seam 36 at the location of the tape 20, this seamsomewhat wider than the seam 34; that the seam 35, at the location ofthe tape I8, is also somewhat wider than the seam 34; that a line ofstitching 31 looks together both plies of the flap 29, the tape l8, andthe strip 33 at the two-ply portion of the latter established by itsseam 35; and that a line of stitching 38 looks together the section l6at the two-ply portion thereof established by the seam 36, the tape 20,and the two plies ofthe flap 30 at a point across the latter remote fromits fold line 32. Also, it will be observed that, beyond the stitching38, and in a direction away from the fold line 32, the inner ply of theflap 30 is projected beyond the strip 33 and the tape 20, and, wellbeyond the later, is given a narrow lapped edge seam 39 like the seam34.

The relationship of and coaction between the Various sheet members ofthe plural-ply structure just described, and existent as a singlecomposite such structure when the slide fastener is closed, are such, ithas been found, as will attain, while the garment is being worn, at onceall the objectives of providing a blouse-like appearance at the front ofthe garment, of snugly flatly pocketing the closed slide fastener, ofsecuring an ideal frontal drape of the garment, of always fully coveringand concealing the presence of the slide fastener, of holding the flap29 to flat, smooth and unwrinkled spread diagonally of the front of thegarment, and, at the Same time, of preventing the outer surface ofsaidflap from projecting noticeably above the portion of the section [5immediately adjoining said flap. The other of the auxiliary fasteningmeans aforesaid, the one second-mentioned, is shown in Fig. 3 asincorporating a single snap fastener one of the complementary elementsof which is carried, as at 40, by the panel 30, and the other of whichelements is carried, as at 4|, by the section l5.

The new garment may include a pocket or pockets; for instance, such abreast pocket as that indicated at 42,'which is shown as provided 'witha top closing flap 43. 7

While I have illustrated and described the preferred. embodiment of myinvention, it is to be a'pointpffset from-the ver'tic'al center lin'e ofthe front of the garment down to a point above the bottom ofthe garment,a slide fastener "extended along said line with one of theteeth-carriers of said fastener secured to one of said sections and theother teeth-carrier secured-to the othersection, both'of said sections-below the bottom of said slide fastener having substantially verticallyextending edges both shorter than said line, said sections being soshaped that with the slide fastener closed, the marginal portions ofsaid sections at their last-named edges overlap, and a releasablefastening means partially carried by each of said marginal portions,there being an elongate flap carried by each of said sections, each suchflap substantially coextensive with the teeth-carrier onthat section andprojected beyond said teeth-carrier toward the other section, one ofsaid flaps partially laterally underlying the teeth-carrier on itssection and the other of said flaps partially laterally overlying theteeth-carrier on its section, said overlying flap being integral withthe fabric of its carrying section, and being longitudinally foldedonitself to establish a two-ply flap structure with the free end of theoverlying flap having botlrits plies overlying the teeth 'ca-rrier onits section, and thereb'e'ing an auxiliary fabric strip underlyingsaidteethcarrier, said two plies of the last-namedflap, the last-namedteeth-carrier, and said auxiliary fabric 'strip being connect'ed by aline of stitches pass-ing throug h said two-plies of the last namedflap, the last-named teeth-carrierand said auxiliary strip, saidauxiliary strip being longitudinally marginally folded on itself toprovide -a two ly subdivision thereof and said stitches passing throughboth of said plies.

3. All open-front shirt-like garment, comprisinga-front portion whichincludestwo portions separable along a lineextending diagonally from a'point offset from theverticalcenter line of the frontal the'garment downto a point above the bottom ofthe garment, a slide fastener extendedalong said line with one of the teeth-carriers of said fastener securedto one of said sections and the other teeth-carrier secured to the othersection, both of said sections below the bottom of said slide fastenerhaving substantially vertically extending edges both shorter than saidline, said sections being so shaped that with the slide fastener closed,the marginal portions of said sections at their last-named edges,overlap and a releasable fastening means partially carried by each ofsaid vertically extending edges, said vertically extending edges of bothsections have their edge portions bent back and upon themselves,reenforcing means engaged between said edges and the bent back edgeportions, and said fastening mean being mounted through said reenforcingmeans andthe contacting faces of said overlapped vertical edges.

flap on the inside of the last-named section, said overlying flap havingboth its plies overlying the teeth-carrier on its section and therebeing an auxiliary fabric strip underlying said teeth-carrier, said twoplies of the last-named flap, the last-named teeth-carrier, and saidauxiliary fabric strip being connected by a line of stitches passingthrough said two plies of the last-named flap, the last-namedteeth-carrier and said auxiliary strip.

2. An open-front shirt-like garment, compris- 1 ing a front portionwhich includes two portions separable along a line extending diagonallyfrom a point offset from the vertical center line of the front of thegarment down to a point above the bottom of the garment, a slidefastener extended along said line with one of the teeth-carriers of saidfastener secured to one of said sections and the other teeth-carriersecured to the other section, both of said sections below the bottom ofsaid slide fastener: having substantially vertically extending edgesboth shorter than said line, said section being so shaped that with theslide fas tener closed the marginal portions of said sec tionsat theirlast-named edges overlap, anda releasable fastening means partiallycarried by each of said marginal portions, there being an elongate flapcarried by each of said sections, each such flapsubstantiallycoextensive with the teeth-carrier on that section and projected beyondsaid teeth-carrier toward the other section, one of said flaps partiallylaterally underlying the teeth-carrier on its section and the other ofsaid flaps partially laterally overlying the teeth-carrier on itssection, said overlying flap being integral with the fabric of itscarrying section, and being longitudinally folded'on itself to establisha two-ply flap structure with the free end of the ,fiap on the inside ofthe last-named section, said 4. An open-front shirt-like garment,comprising a front portion which includes two portions separable along aline extending diagonally from a point offset from the vertical centerline of the front of the garment down to a point above the bottom of thegarment, a slide fastener extended along said line with one of theteeth-carriers of said fastener secured to one of said sections and theother teeth-carrier secured to the other section, both of said sectionsbelow the bottom of said slide fastener having substantially verticallyextending edges both shorter than said line, said sections being soshaped that with. the slide fastener closed, the marginal portions ofsaid sections at their last-named edges, overlap and a releasablefastening means partially carried by each of said vertically extendingedges, said vertically extending edges of both sections have their edgeportions bent back and upon themselves,'reenforcing means engagedbetween said edges and the bent back edge portions, and said fasteningmeans being mounted through said reenforcing means and the contactingfaces of said overlapped vertical edges, said reenforcing meanscomprising strips of buckram stitched in position between said edge andsaid bent back edge portions and coextensive with said verticallyextending edges.

5. In an open-front shirt-like garment, a front portion formed with afront opening extended diagonally from a point at the top thereof offsetfrom the vertical center line of the garment to a point above the bottomof the garment, means for holding said diagonally extended front openingclosed, said front portion below said front opening having substantiallyvertically extending edge portions which are overlapped when the frontopening is closed, said edge portions being doubled back uponthemselves, reinforcing strips 7 inserted between the adjacent faces ofsaid edge portions and their doubled back parts, and fastening means forreleasably connecting together said edge portions.

6. In an open-front shirt-like garment, a front portion formed with afront opening extended diagonally from a point at the top thereof offsetfrom the vertical center line of the garment to a point above the bottomof the garment, means for holding said diagonally extended front openingclosed, said front portion below said front opening having substantiallyvertically extending edge portions which are overlapped when the frontopening is closed, said edge portions being doubled back uponthemselves, reinforcing strips inserted between the adjacent faces ofsaid edge portions and their doubled back parts, and fastening means forreleasably connecting together said edge portions, said fastening means8: comprising complementary snap fasteners mounted on said edge portionsintermediate of their top and bottom ends.

IRVING E. YATES.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,002,306 Berlin et a1. May 21,1935 2,010,349 Cooper Aug. 6, 1935 2,428,198 BrOhard Sept. 30, 1947FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 74,967 Austria Nov. 25, 1918

